Mortgage debt — the new retirement time bomb

How long has it been since you’ve seen one of those mortgage-burning pictures? It was once a big deal, especially with the Greatest Generation.

There was no joy like that last mortgage payment, and our parents prided themselves on burning that paper, hopefully before they retired.

These days, baby boomers increasingly are carrying that debt into retirement.

And while there are pluses to that (the interest rate deduction for some), many financial planners now advise their clients to pay off the mortgage. But they are much more concerned with credit-card, auto-loan and student-loan debt.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the percentage of homeowners ages 65 and older with mortgage debt increased from 22 percent in 2001 to 30 percent in 2011. Among homeowners 75 and older, the rate more than doubled, from 8.4 to 21.2 percent.

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